rk47 wrote:No idea on triggering events, but for the most useful Skills out there:1. WarlordDirect control allows your army to be more flexible with placements and you no longer have to micromanage 3-4 units and instead dump all your AP on a single most effective unit. Don't over-do it, but an army with 2 Warlord will wreck most enemies with ease.

2. EnticeIt's always annoying to have to fight past 50,000 troops, break down a gate, or climb over two walls just to take over the city. Wouldn't it be faster to just lure the leader out, surround him, and capture him to end the fight? This is only applicable vs Low INT officers btw, which is why I always spare the stupid ones (INT<60) and execute the smarter ones if they refuse to work for me (INT>60). I took out all of Yuan Shao's sons with this strat. They never survived the ambushes. And of course, I let them go upon capture.

3. Spy Sometimes you want the info to be exposed for a long term, and this helps you just that. It's not that crucial, but helpful to keep tabs on your enemies. Spy lets you plant spies to keep the information displayed for a longer time than usual.

4. BlunderAnother great skill but require the strategist to be close enough in harms way unlike Entice.

5. MissileA chance to ignite a flame on hit from range on top of the ranged damage? I definitely like this when the wind conditions favor it. A fire is like another unit on your side, blocking movements and dealing damage. Take note that even Horsebow Units can launch Missiles.

6. Hire Very useful to maintain high experience on veteran units, hastening their upgrade.

7. RallyRallying seems wasteful when used on just one unit, but when set up right, rallying five units at once can be immensely rewarding. You have thirty days to finish the fight. Why not spend the first few days rallying 5 units while the rest of the veterans get into position? Also, it is a very good way to increase strategic experience to unlock the immensely useful Warlord skill.

Another powerful item effect to note is 'Red Hare' The 'Retreat Certain' effect made sure any escape is guaranteed in battles, this is extremely powerful for harassment raids. You need to remember that any development order requires a month to complete, if an attack occurs, it will cancel all orders for that city. So what do I do? I bring in Lu Bu with just 10,000 Horsebows, attack and employ ambush tactic to remain out of sight. If I see targets of opportunity, I walk out and destroy, and reserve enough AP to return to Ambush position.

Do this for 30 days and the defenders would've claimed a very hollow victory. Your budget is 20,000 food and 10,000 men.

They lost a month worth of supplies consumed by their entire garrison, and their entire work for the month is canceled. I did this 5 times in a row, and eventually the defense just crumbled with the City Order at 33 due to the constant battles.

I also like the ambush skill as well because almost any player can do it but it requires a forest to hide. What amazing about this skills is that you lose no units and can sometimes cause confusion towards your opponent. It's great for gorilla tactics because you can use this tactic multiple times in one turn if you have high enough AP but you require two forest next to each other.

Basically the sequence is Ambush in Forest ->attack->Sneak back into adjacent forest->Ambush in Forest->attack

I had something strange just happen recently that hasn't happened before. I was playing under Liu Yong, serving as prefect of Jiang Ling when the event for Yuan Shao dying and his sons splitting their forces happened. After this event, a prompt would frequently come up. I should have taken a picture, but it was a prompt to do repair (and sometimes other domestic work) for the city of Nan Pi. In the prompt there would be a list of officers under Yuan Tan, who I'm assuming were being tasked with the work, and the option given to me to accept or refuse. It was pretty vague, I'm assuming I was asked whether those officers should do the work or not. Liu Yong had no relations with Yuan Tan, and the prompt stopped coming up after Yuan Shang took Nan Pi.

Has anyone else experienced this prompt?

*I just loaded up the save and the prompt started to to appear in Bei Hai (the last city Yuan Tan hold). I managed to take a pic of it.

I am not sure if you figure it out already or not but that prompt usually appears when you are at domestic location and you are talking to one of your close officers. Domestic location meaning farm, market, blacksmith, gate, or order house. Your relationship must be at "Trust" or "Close" for this prompt to appear when you are talking to any officer at these locations. The officers are basically asking you to help them with their duty and this can increase the point to whichever domestic duty he is doing and there is no extra cost but it will take some time away from whatever you are doing. If you refuse you won't be penalized in terms of decreasing your relationship with other officers. I generally do it when I am not a sovereign or prefect.

That isn't the same prompt, though I know the one you are talking about. In that play through I wasn't an officer under Yuan Tan (I was serving Liu Yong). The prompt would appear no matter where I was, and as you can see it was related to Yuan Tan's officers and the city he owned. In the pic I posted you only see one officer, but most of the time there would be a few officers in the list.

So I played this game for the first time since like 2005 or 2006. I had remembered how cheap Campaign mode is (which isn't necessarily a bad thing if, say, you're bored of your game and want to beat it quickly); I remembered how quickly 15 years could pass without you having moved from your city, free officers being discovered, or other officers gaining deeds; I remembered the side quests - but what I didn't fully remember was just how funny the dialogue is. I think with the quests it's intentional but with the generic/friend dialogue it's probably unintentional.

I mean, I guess it depends on who you're playing as if it's funny or not, but . . . the PC is kind of on the dumber side of happy-go-lucky . . .

. . . and your ruler is really bored and lonely. It must be my 47 CHA.

I'd remembered the cow quest, too, but only now twelve years later have I truly come to appreciate it. After I conquered nine cities in a campaign, I did it twice. Here it is as an unabridged amalgamation:

Xu Yuan wrote:Haha! That was a great read and that might be the strangest fanart I have ever seen for Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Strangest fanart you say?

FIFY.

Ah, the end of classic Yu Jin, I still have no idea why Koei decided to throw away the awesome design they had for Yu Jin since RTKVII and give him a more... barbaric appearance in RTKXII-XIII.

I didn't like the VI-VIII portrait too much - I just kind of disagreed with the vibe: intimidating, but not dignified. The X-XI one is my favorite, for sure. IX I like too, it's like he's halfway morphing between VIII and X - though he suffers from the RTKIX Sameface/Keanu Reeves syndrome:

(Don't worry. This isn't that much of an effort post - I already happened to have this image.)

As for RTKXII-XIII, you're referring to this one, correct?

I'm actually annoyed - though not surprised - that he didn't get a new portrait for XIII (much less a set of special portraits), not even in the PUK. I mean okay, the games are based on the novel, but he's the only one of the Five Wei Generals without it.

I have veered far beyond an acceptable range for off-topic discussion; I apologize.

Heh, I recall that exact phrasing from playing RTK X and thought that was a really weird line. I'm glad to see that you made it into reality. Now I can say that is the strangest fanart of RTK I have seen.

Interesting comparison with Keanu Reeves. I did like Yu Jin's RTK VIII look best, it caught the "stern and authoritative" man that Yu Jin was. Sort of like RTKIX-XI Zhang Zhao with that condescending glare downwards, now he just looks like he's always shouting while pleading (fitting, but not elegantly dismissive)

If only Yu Jin looked as good as Aragorn. He hardly looks Chinese due to his enormous nose and really, really small eyes. Also he is the only one of the Five Grand Generals not to have a helmet, but wears his hair out, which is highly impolite. I think DW did better in implementing Yu Jin's attitude through his appearance.

As you know security is mortal's greatest enemy.

SimRTK is back up in a testing phase! Go ahead and give it a look over on the Simzhou forum branch.